Biomaterials for liver tissue engineering

Liver extracellular matrix (ECM) composition, topography and biomechanical properties influence cell-matrix interactions. The ECM presents guiding cues for hepatocyte phenotype maintenance, differentiation and proliferation both in vitro and in vivo. Current understanding of such cell-guiding cues along with advancement of techniques for scaffold fabrication has led to evolution of matrices for liver tissue culture from simple porous scaffolds to more complex 3D matrices with microarchitecture similar to in vivo. Natural and synthetic polymeric biomaterials fabricated in different topographies and porous matrices have been used for hepatocyte culture. Heterotypic and homotypic cell interactions are necessary for developing an adult liver as well as an artificial liver. A high oxygen demand of hepatocytes as well as graded oxygen distribution in liver is another challenging attribute of the normal liver architecture that further adds to the complexity of engineered substrate design. A balanced interplay of cell-matrix interactions along with cell-cell interactions and adequate supply of oxygen and nutrient determines the success of an engineered substrate for liver cells. Techniques devised to incorporate these features of hepatic function and mimic liver architecture range from maintaining liver cells in mm-sized tailor-made scaffolds to a more bottoms up approach that starts from building the microscopic subunit of the whole tissue. In this review, we discuss briefly various biomaterials used for liver tissue engineering with respect to design parameters such as scaffold composition and chemistry, biomechanical properties, topography, cell-cell interactions and oxygenation.